For an Impossible Enigma
by BrokenBook
Summary: "Impossible girl, a mystery wrapped in an enigma, squeezed into a skirt that's just a little bit too... tight..." She was different from the others. He knew that it would change the way he saw her, change the way he felt and it did. For Clara was an enigma and he couldn't stop himself from falling for her. She knew it too. — Whouffle
1. Prologue: The Impossible - Him -

**Prologue: The Impossible - Him -**

 **0**

How? How could she possibly be the same person?

 _Run. Run you clever boy, and remember me._

I never stopped running. Not since I first stole my Tardis, yet I keep running into her. Why _her_?

Why was she of any significance?

Usually when I met someone I could tell if they were going to be important or if they were just like the rest of them. That was how I chose who I invited onto the Tardis.

Except Clara, Clara had died the moment I had invited her on board. And I couldn't quite work out why. She was the most confusing... person I had ever met. She was the centre of my attention. You'd think someone with the power to travel through time would be able to trace the amount of Clara Oswin Oswald's in the world, and I would have been able to, had the name not caused the Tardis to send me flying into the swimming pool the second I began typing said name.

Clara, Clara, Clara, Clara. She would be the end of me.

 **0**


	2. Prologue: The Impossible - Her -

**Prologue: The Impossible - Her -**

 **0**

Who was he?

That man that I knew. And how did he know me?

What was with that robe? The hair? And for some reason there was a joke about his chin swimming in the back of my mind.

 _Careful dear. You'll put someone's eye out._

I don't quite know why.

I suppose I really should have paid more attention to the impossible man that was waiting just outside. It seemed like he was protecting me. An impossible man, my protector. And a cute one too. The thought seemed silly a half hour ago, but now I really honest to stars had a protector. I really need a cup of tea.

Oh impossible man, what are you doing to me?

 **0**


	3. Prequel: The Bells of St John

**The Bells of Saint John Prequel**

 **Original Airdate: 30 Mar 2013**

 **0.5**

The sound of children running about and being their innocent selves surrounded a man sitting lonely on the swings. That was until a little girl ran up to the swing beside him.

"Hello," the girl greeted the man who sat on the swing next to hers.

"Hello," he replied. He wasn't just a man, though, not really. Yet, he definitely wasn't a child.

"Why are you sitting on a swing?" As far as she knew, grown-ups didn't sit on swings.

"Why shouldn't I?" The man had never really grown up past the point where sitting on swings was deemed unacceptable.

"Because you're old," she told him bluntly.

"Yes, that's true. That - that, that is very true." A sad smile played on his lips as he laughed lightly. For the little girl, being as old as he was was an impossible concept. He didn't mention it.

"My mum says I shouldn't talk to strange men," she said as if suddenly realising that her mum might tell her off for starting a conversation with him.

"Ah, you mum's right," the man replied.

"Are you strange?" She didn't think he would be any harm to her, though.

He laughed; strange was such a vague word. "Oh, dear. I'm way past strange. I think I'm probably incredible."

The girl giggled at that before asking, "Are you lonely?"

"Why would I be lonely?"

"Because you're sad. Have you lost something?"

"No." The man, despite being the biggest child in the universe, wasn't the best at making conversation with a child. Especially when he was distracted.

"When I lose something," the girl continued, as though he hadn't dismissed her question, "I go to a quiet place and I close my eyes, and then I can remember where I put it."

The man supposed the girl was trying to cheer him up. "Good plan."

"I'm always losing things. I lost my best pencil, my school bag, and my gran, and my mojo."

"Your mojo?" The man laughed silently—he hadn't heard that word in a while. What year was he in again?

"I got it back, though." She smiled at him.

"Hey, that's good." He thought he could try and cheer her up, too.

"What did you lose?" she asked, getting back on track.

"My friend." He began swinging again. "I met her twice before, and I lost her both times, and now I don't think I'll ever find her again."

"Have you been looking?"

"Yeah, everywhere." He kicked a piece of playground tarmac with his shoe.

"That's sad."

"It is a bit. Hey, is that your mum?" he asked the little girl, pointing over to where two women were chatting.

"Yeah. I'd better go and see if she's all right." She was always worried about other people over herself.

"Yeah, I think you better had."

"How are you going to find her?"

"Well, the first two times I met her, I just sort of bumped into her, so I thought maybe if I just wandered about a bit, I might bump into her again. You know, like destiny, sort of."

"That's rubbish." She clearly didn't believe in destiny. The man thought maybe she should.

"Yeah, I think it probably is," he sighed. "Hey, maybe I could find a quiet room and have a good think about it instead."

"That would be better," she said, getting up from her swing. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye," he mumbled, watching her walk over to her mother.

She turned around after reaching her mum. "Mister, I hope you find her again."

"So do I."

"Who was that?" Her mum asked, pulling the girl around to face her gently.

"I was talking to a sad man," she replied innocently.

"Look, Clara Oswald, what have I told you about talking to strange men?"

The man's ears didn't catch a word of their conversation. If they had, he would have found the friend he'd been searching for. For the little girl was Clara Oswald, and he was the Doctor.

 **0.5**

 **A/N: and so begins a new Whoniverse fanfiction. The concept of a slightly AU series intrigued me as I had yet to read one similar to this. Sure you've got the OC's following the series or the alternate endings to an episode which affect the next series as a companion's stayed instead of dying but here is my take on a new series 7-9+. So enjoy and please read, review and favourite.**

 **And thank you to my amazing new beta Kinosternon! For helping me to edit this chapter.**

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	4. You Bring a Booth? S7E6

**You Bring a Booth?**

 **01**

 **\- [The Maitland Household]**

 **01**

A plate of jammie dodgers sat beside her bed, one half-eaten. She presumed Artie had left them for her at first, but then she remembered the strange man that appeared at her front door. That man, where was he?

Clara jumped up from her position on her bed when she heard a sudden, almost groan-like sound emanating from outside the attic window.

"Hello?" she called out, opening the window quickly. The man was there, sitting beside that strange blue box.

"Hello!" he replied, excitedly standing up and clapping his hands together. "Are you all right?"

"I'm in bed." She was confused. Who had put her there?

"Yes." He was very vague, wasn't he?

She tried being a bit more blunt. "Don't remember going"

"No," he brushed her off.

"What did I miss?" she asked, suddenly cautious as to why he'd stuck around.

"Oh, quite a lot, actually," he began, clapping his hands again before digging in his pockets and retrieving a notebook. "Angie called. She's going to stay over at Nina's. Apparently that's all completely fine and you shouldn't worry like you always do. For god's sake get off her back. Also, your dad phoned, mainly about the government. He seems very cross with them, I've got several pages on that. I said I'd look into it. I fixed that rattling noise in the washing machine, indexed the kitchen cupboards, optimised photosynthesis in the main flower bed and assembled a quadricycle. "

"Assembled a what?" Clara exclaimed, popping her head out the window further.

"I found a disassembled quadricycle in the garage."

"I don't think you did," she said, laughing at his confusion.

"I invented the quadricycle. Ha!" he told himself. Clara wasn't exactly sure what he thought he was doing, waiting for her out there. She wasn't entirely sure how any of this had happened. She did, however, know something; she knew everything that had happened to her whilst she was lying on the floor. It was like she could see two lives, fluctuating in front of her eyes. What was with the potato man?

"What happened to me?"

"Don't you remember?" The Doctor seemed concerned that she didn't remember anything. She didn't want to ponder on it. If he told her what had happened she could trust him. If he didn't, then she didn't know what to think.

"I was scared, really scared. Didn't know where I was." Clara chose to play the innocent for the time being.

"Do you know now?"

"Yes."

"Well then, you should go to sleep. Because you're safe now, I promise," the Doctor told her, sitting back down in his chair again. "Goodnight, Clara."

Clara looked at the makeshift desk he had made with the robot on top of it. She didn't quite know how long she could play the innocent party if he kept making it quite so obvious he wasn't from around here. She looked back to his face again. He seemed to be studying her.

"Are you guarding me?"

"Well, yes. Yes, I am." He grinned up at her.

She laughed in her head - was he proud to call himself her guardian? "Are you seriously going to sit down there all night?"

"I promise I won't budge from this spot," he reassured her, patting the arm of his chair.

Clara didn't exactly fancy just letting this stranger wait for her all night. There was so much she didn't now about him that she could very well find out soon. With her mind made up, she told him, "Well then, I'll have to come to you."

"Eh?" The Doctor jerked up from his seat. Clara closed the window before he could refuse her self-invitation, grabbed her dressing gown from the hook on the back of the door, and rushed downstairs to make two mugs of tea. She really needed a cup of tea with the day she'd been having.

 **01**

 **\- [Outside the Maitland Household]**

 **01**

Clara appeared in the doorway of the house, struggling to carry two mugs with an additional fold-up chair tucked under her arm.

"I like your house," the Doctor commented, grabbing the two mugs from her so she could set up her chair. He noticed she'd set it almost uncomfortably close to his. Both of them took their seats and he returned her tea to her before she replied.

"It isn't mine. I'm a friend of the family."

"But you look after the kids." He set his own mug down on his makeshift desk and picked up his screwdriver to fiddle with the spoonhead. Suddenly he looked as though he'd remembered something very important. "Oh yes, you're a governess, aren't you? Just like-"

Clara paused and gave the Doctor a pointed look. "Just like what?"

"Just like... I thought you probably would be." He had seemed to struggle for words. Clara imagined, if she had been in another life, he would be automatically flailing his arms about to emphasise his point. She could, in fact, picture him flailing; without it, he just looked strange. He was hiding something.

"Are you going to explain what happened to me?" she asked. It was a test, the same one as earlier - except, this time, he had to answer.

"There's something in the Wi-Fi," he answered bluntly. Clara knew he wasn't lying because - because she knew exactly what had happened to her.

"Okay."

"This whole world is swimming in Wi-Fi. We're living in a Wi-Fi soup. Suppose something got inside it. Suppose there was something living in the Wi-Fi, harvesting human minds. Extracting them. Imagine that. Human souls trapped like flies in the world-wide web. Stuck forever, crying out for help," he explained, a pained look on his face as he waited for her to understand.

"Isn't that basically Twitter?" Clara joked. She could see the millions of people on Twitter flash before her eyes. Almost all of them had made one cry for help, sometimes jokingly. She noticed the open laptop on his lap and realised he'd managed to take it from her room while she slept.

The Doctor clicked the Wi-Fi icon on her laptop, watching as the strange symbols began cropping up on his screen. He frowned, half-tempted to see for himself what Clara had gone through.

"What's that face for?" Clara frowned, as though mimicking him.

"A computer can hack another computer. A living, sentient computer, maybe that could hack people. Edit them. Re-write them."

"Why would you say that?" Clara asked worriedly. Her eyes scanned the area around them just to make sure there was no one strange nearby - or anyone stranger than themselves, at least.

"Because a few hours ago you knew nothing about the internet, and you just made a joke about Twitter."

The look on his face almost made Clara run back up to her room where she was a safe distance away from him. But she believed she could trust him, and he was supposed to be protecting her, not harming her. "Oh." Her eyes grew wide as she stared up at him. "Oh, that's weird. I know all about computers now in my head. Where did all that come from?"

The Doctor sighed sadly. If only he had found Clara earlier, this would never have happened to her, and they would have been able to talk without everything seeming to be come between them. "You were uploaded for a while. Wherever you were, you brought something extra back, which I very much doubt you'll be allowed to keep." His eyes spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. "You and me, inside that box, now."

"I'm sorry?" Clara asked him, confused. What good would it do for her to get inside that small box with him now? unless - no - maybe, she wouldn't mind, but that was a pretty vague way to get her inside there.

"Look, just get inside," he nearly shouted, standing up and attempting to push her inside the box with him.

"Both of us?" She held her ground, refusing to move inside by spinning past him and sloshing her tea on the drive.

"Oh, trust me. You'll understand once we're in there." That certainly sounded like an invitation to Clara.

"I bet I will." She grinned, rolling with his apparent suggestion. "What is that box, anyway? Why have you got a box? Is it like a snogging booth?"

"Clara." He tried to push her again before stepping back and staring at her in confusion. "A what?"

"Is that what you do? You bring a booth," she commented. "There is such a thing as too keen."

"Clara, look around you." He jumped out of his slight shock at her suggestions and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to see the lights being turned on in the houses around them despite it being the middle of the night.

"What's going on? What's happening? Is the Wi-Fi switching on the lights?"

"No, people are switching on the lights. The Wi-Fi is switching on the people."

That man across the road - Clara had spotted him earlier, but she hadn't been worried earlier. She was now, as his head spun round to reveal the spoonhead shape of the spoonhead robot in front of them at this moment.

"What is that thing?" she asked loudly.

"A walking base station. You saw one earlier."

"I saw a little girl."

"It must have taken an image from your subconscious, thrown it back at you. Ah! Active camouflage. They could be everywhere."

She knew that much - a little girl, one from just that morning. The book Artie had been reading had a little girl on it...

"Doctor? Doctor, " Clara called out to him, noticing that the lights from the neighbouring houses seemed to be the only ones on in the whole city. "What's going on?"

 **01**

 **A/N: I realise I've not been noting on the sections without the Doctor or Clara in, and there is a reason behind it, albeit a pretty terrible one at that, I figured, being as the changes were in the Clara sections and it seemed to be following Clara's life with her thoughts even though it is in 3** **rd** **person. Thank you, everyone, for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing even though no one had yet… If anyone had any suggestions, constructive criticism or tips I'd love** **to hear them. Quick question, would you prefer longer or shorter chapters?**

 **Also thank you to my amazing beta Kinosternon! Who is absolutely amazing.**

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	5. Coffee S7E6

**02**

 **[TARDIS]**

 **02**

"Okay," Clara began once they'd entered the Tardis. "When are you going to explain to me what the hell is going on?"

"Breakfast," He answered simply, flipping a switch on the console.

"What?" Clara chased him around the console in shock. "I ain't waiting till breakfast."

The Doctor paused in the doorway as he faced Clara. "It's a time machine. You never have to wait for breakfast."

 **02**

 **[SOUTH BANK]**

 **02**

The Doctor exited his spacecraft, eliciting a round of applause from passersby. Though Clara had already travelled in his time machine, it was strange to see a different side of London once she stepped outside. It was as though a dream had suddenly become a reality.

"Thank you, thank you. Yes, magic blue box." The Doctor grinned, soaking up the attention as he held out a fez for people to put change in. Attention-seeker. Clara filed that thought for later. "All donations gratefully accepted. Roll up, give us your dosh. Pennies, pounds, anything you've got."

The crowds seemed to be eating up this 'magic trick,' and Clara took over from the Doctor collecting the public's money. She almost felt like she was wrong for tricking them, but his voice in her ear distracted her from that thought, "Keep collecting, love. We need enough for breakfast. Just popping back to the garage."

"Love?" Clara exclaimed, shocked. She twirled round to catch only the edge of his coat as he re-entered the Tardis. Not that she minded all that much.

 **02**

 **[TARDIS]**

 **02**

He grabbed her laptop from the console, and the ship hummed at him, slightly angry. She was moaning about what he'd called Clara. Not yet, he chided himself. Not yet.

"I know," he sighed, making his way towards the garage.

His shipped hummed again. 'Wrong way,' she said.

"This way," he corrected himself, walking in the opposite direction.

 **02**

 **[SOUTH BANK]**

 **02**

"So this is tomorrow, then," Clara shouted back into the Tardis. Somehow she knew that he could hear her and that he would be listening. "Tomorrow's come early."

The Doctor came out of the Tardis on a motorbike. But after the morning they'd been through, Clara wasn't surprised. "No, it came at the usual time. We just took a shortcut. Thank you, thank you. Tomorrow, a camel."

Clara smirked as she jumped on behind him; yes, he definitely loved the attention. She'd already emptied the hat and pocketed the change when he grabbed it off of her and placed it on a child's head.

She let go of his waist momentarily so he could place a helmet on her head. He was twisted in his seat in a way that must have been uncomfortable for him, but she saw the way he was looking at her when he pulled the strap tight against her head. The way his fingers grazed her cheek. Longing. No one had ever looked at her that way. She stared at the back of his head as he turned around to start the motorbike.

They were off down the streets of London. Clara wasn't quite sure where they were at first - all she knew was she didn't want to let go of his waist, ever.

"If you've got a flying time machine, why are we on a motorbike?" she asked him as they drove over Westminster Bridge.

"I don't take the Tardis into battle," he told her, trying to concentrate on driving when all he could think about was the way her hands felt around him.

"Because it's made of wood?" It seemed like a perfectly logical solution to her, but as those words left her lips, she felt a pain prick the surface of her mind - almost a headache, but deeper.

"Because it's the most powerful ship in the universe and I don't want it falling into the wrong hands," he exclaimed, lifting his hands off the vehicle as though to show her that he was the right hands. Or maybe the wrong ones? "Okay?"

They passed Big Ben, Clara clutching him tighter. Maybe for her first time riding a motorbike, she shouldn't have chosen to ride with a complete stranger. Except he wasn't a complete stranger, not really. Even if he was strange.

 **02**

 **[ROOFTOP TERRACE]**

 **02**

"So if we can travel anywhere in time and space," Clara began, once they were sitting on the terrace of a café. Clara quite liked this café, she'd been here before with someone, she couldn't quite remember who. "Why did we travel to the morning? What's the point in that?"

The Doctor had ordered her drink for her, which they'd already finished by the time he'd managed to set her laptop up. How he knew what he favourite drink was, she did not know. "Whoever's after us, spent the whole night looking for us. Are you tired?"

"Yes," She smirked at him as she sipped the remains of her smoothie.

"What? Then imagine how they feel," he tried to reason. Clara wasn't one for simplicities, he knew. "They came the long way round. They've got to be close. Definitely London, going by the signal distribution. I can hack the lowest level of their operating system, but I can't establish a physical location. The security's too good."

"Are you an alien?" She hadn't really been listening to everything he was saying, but she'd got the gist of it. This super genius, who thought he could do anything, was having trouble hacking a computer.

"I am, yes. Okay with that?" He leant back in his chair, preparing to have to explain a lot if she wasn't okay with it.

"Fine, yeah. Think I'm fine." She sipped at her smoothie again.

"Oh, good." He was disappointed, but he should have expected this sort of response from her. The more they talked, the more he realised he knew almost all of her antics. The way she moved when she was confused. That guarded look in her eyes that meant she didn't trust him. It had taken him a while last time to break that barrier.

"So, what happens if you do find them? What happens then?"

"I don't know. I can't tell the future, I just work there."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "You don't have a plan?"

"Oh, you know what I always say about plans." Sometimes he forgot this wasn't his Clara, not quite. She didn't know him.

"What?" she asked. He'd done that before: spoken to her as though she knew more about him than she did... like he expected her to know.

"I don't have one," he answered instantly.

"People always have plans."

He was staring at her again. "Yes. Yes, I suppose they do. So tell me, how long have you been looking after those kids?"

"About a year, since their mum died."

"Okay." He nodded. He knew she was a governess; it seemed like every Clara had a natural motherly instinct. "Why you? Family friend, I get that, but there must have been others. Why did it have to be you? You don't really seem like a nanny."

Of course, she had seemed like a nanny in the past, but this Clara was different. It was like learning about a new person, gaining a friend you knew too much about and yet not knowing anything about them at all.

"Gimme," Clara told him, grabbing the laptop off him, only for him to grab it back.

"Sorry. What?" The Victorian Clara he'd met wasn't interested in technology at all, Oswin was, but this Clara didn't know a thing about technology. There was no way he could know what she was going to do, she wasn't them.

"You need to know where they physically are." She leant across the table. "Their exact location."

"Yes."

"I can do it." She took her chances, taking the laptop from him.

"Oi, hang on. I need that." He pointed at the laptop, which she held out of his reach.

"You've hacked the lower operating system, yeah? I'll have their physical location in under five minutes. Pop off and get us a coffee." She let her guard down, giving the Doctor an opportunity to grab the laptop.

"If I can't find them, you definitely can't."

She grabbed it back. "They uploaded me, remember? I've got computing stuff in my head."

"So do I," he told her, taking it again.

"I have insane hacking skills," she said, continuing their game of tug-of-war.

"I'm from space and the future with two hearts and twenty-seven brains," he insisted, pulling it towards him.

"And I can find them in under five minutes, plus photographs. Twenty-seven?" She smirked.

"Okay, slight exaggeration," he admitted, stopping his tugging.

"Coffee, go get,' Clara commanded, yanking away the laptop one last time and opening it up. "Five minutes, I promise."

The Doctor leant back in his chair, subtly checking the time on his watch. Five minutes. "The security is absolute."

"It's never about the security, it's about the people," Clara told him, typing away at a speed that even the Doctor couldn't comprehend. He stood up with a sigh. And then he was staring at her, again. She was impossible. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Sorry, no, it's nothing." He blushed, flapping his hands about as though it would help his explanation. "It's just, you're a nanny. Isn't that a bit, well, Victorian?"

"Victorian?" Clara figured this was one of those times where he wasn't seeing her, but remembering someone. She'd done it herself to him last night, she supposed.

"You're young, you know." He wasn't helping his case as he began dancing, in what was probably the most dad way possible. "Shouldn't you be doing, you know, young things, with young people?"

"What you mean like you, for instance? Down, boy." She began typing again.

"No. No. I didn't, I-" he began, reaching out a hand before noticing the persistent smirk on her face when she looked up at him again. "Shut up."

He walked off into the coffee shop, and Clara for the life of her wished he hadn't She wished he could have just stayed that minute longer, even though she'd suggested that he leave, even though she was craving a coffee. She wanted him to be sitting there. He was her protector, and, in that moment, she didn't feel safe.

 **02**

 **A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who followed/favourited this fanfic. If anyone's confused about some things please tell me because I would love to know where I can improve my work. Also, thank you to my amazing beta kinosternon, who is absolutely amazing with her turnover times! Thanks again and don't forget to review.**

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	6. I Don't Want to Die S7E6

**01**

 **[COFFEE SHOP]**

 **01**

He wasn't sure what compelled him to keep finding her, over and over again. He knew that he'd sealed this Clara's fate with him just by meeting her. The last time had been the worst. He'd thought he would finally be able to stay with her longer, and then she died. Except she wasn't dead – she was here.

"Two more cappuccinos over there, please," he asked the barista after sniffing the cakes on display. Clara was still sitting where he'd left her, tapping at the keyboard. Clara, his Clara… she wasn't quite his, not yet, not now. He wasn't used to that.

"One moment, sir." He was Italian, the Doctor noted. He should take Clara to Italy — he would have once. The lights flickered behind him, but he didn't notice, too distracted by the assortment of treats in front of him. Clara had loved scones. _"You realise you haven't the slightest chance of saving your little friend."_

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked, between bites of the scone in his hands.

"I said, one moment, sir," the barista repeated. The Doctor knew he was old, but he didn't think he was losing his hearing yet. _"I said, there's not the slightest chance of saving your little friend. And don't annoy the old man. He isn't, in fact, speaking."_

He was annoyed – someone was trying to use Clara to get to him. The lights flickered again. He knew what that meant.

 _"I'm speaking. Just using whatever's to hand_ ," said the waitress behind him. Of course, he knew it wasn't really her. He stared, worry creeping onto his face as he thought of the possibility of Clara becoming hacked like this waitress was. _"Oh, she's rather pretty, isn't she? Do you like her? I can make her like you, too, if you want."_

The lights went again, "You alright, sir?" She seemed amused at his closeness, ducking out of his space and returning to her waitress duties.

No. If Clara was in danger; he would never be 'alright'. "Er, yes. Yes. Fine." He handed her his half-eaten scone, and then he was running.

 **01**

 **[ROOFTOP TERRACE]**

 **01**

Clara seemed unaware of all that had happened inside — to the Doctor, that was. Clara was, however, an expert at multitasking. It came with the job, she reasoned. One eye on the window and another on the laptop, she couldn't help but see the interaction going on inside. Thankfully, he hadn't noticed her, and neither had whatever was controlling the wifi.

"You okay?" the Doctor had asked her, coming to a halt next to their table.

"Sure. Setting up stuff," she said, carefully ignoring the fact that she'd been his first concern as she typed away. "Need a username."

"Learning fast," he stated. It worried him, that she knew. He wouldn't dwell on that, though, as long as she was safe.

"Clara Oswald for the win. Oswin!" She ignored him again, focussed on the task before her.

 _You can always call me Oswin, seeing as that's my name._

"Oh, and Doctor, thank you," Clara called after him. He didn't respond though he'd heard her. She wasn't thanking him for the coffee; she was thanking him for caring.

 **01**

 **[COFFEE SHOP]**

 **01**

A smile graced his face as he strolled back into the coffee shop.

 _"Now I want you to take a look around. Go on, have a little stroll,"_ the same waitress told him, circling around him. _"And see how_ impossible _your situation is. Go on, take a look. I do love showing off."_

 _Impossible_. She used that word, and it only made him more determined.

 _"Just let me show you what control of the wifi can do for you,_ " a little girl voiced for the person behind the wifi. _"Stop!"_

Everyone froze.

 _"_ I saw what you can do last night." Little girls, always little girls.

 _Never interfere with other people or planets… unless there's children crying._

 _"And clear."_ They began moving again. The Doctor sighed with relief when people didn't seem to realise what had happened to them but left the shop nonetheless. He didn't think he could handle twenty-odd people distracting him.

The lights flickered, leaving only the television light, which displayed a woman on the screen. "We can hack anyone in the wifi once they've been exposed long enough."

"So there's one of your walking base stations here, somewhere close." It wasn't a question.

 _"There's always someone close. We've released thousands into the world. They home in on the wifi like rats sniffing cheese."_

 **01**

Outside Clara had kept working. She'd managed to hack into their webcams. The one thing she knew, with her now-extended knowledge of the internet, was that almost everybody was on some form of social media – aside from herself of course. Their photos would come in handy.

 **01**

"I don't know who you are or why you're doing this, but the people of this world will not be harmed." The Doctor had had enough. "They will not be controlled. They will not be — "

 _"The people of this world are in no danger whatsoever,"_ the woman on the television cut him off. _"My client requires a steady diet of living human minds — healthy, free-range, human minds. He loves and cares for humanity. In fact, he can't get enough of it,"_

"It's obscene. It's murder." He was disgusted. It wasn't every day he came across monsters like this though he had before.

" _It's life."_ The woman was too direct, uncaring. Like a sheep. _"The farmer tends his flock like a loving parent. The abattoir is not a contradiction. No one loves cattle more than Burger King."_

 **01**

Face Match was something Clara had not used before, but then again she had barely used a computer before today. Somehow, she understood everything. Their faces were processed, and within seconds, she had their social media accessed on her screen. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter. She laughed when she saw how unbelievingly public all their profiles were. She was good.

 _Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy? — They call me the Doctor._

Oh, where did that thought come from? Clara bit her lip, glancing at her companion through the coffee shop window. The reflection of the Shard caught her eye in the window, and she grinned as she looked over her shoulder. She was very good.

 **01**

"This ends." He smiled but didn't mean it. "I'm going to end this today."

 _"How? You don't even know where we are,"_ they almost laughed. Bad move.

"Who's doing this? Who is your client? Hmm? Answer me." He was tempted to laugh with them. They had no idea what he was planning to do to them.

 **01**

Clara was leaning back in her chair when she saw the Doctor round the corner. "I did it. I found them. Where've you been then?"

 _"You found them."_ She found it strange that was all he picked up on. He hadn't even asked if she was okay yet. She thought that was his thing, worrying.

"The Shard. They're in the Shard. Floor sixty-five." She stood up, weary of his presence.

 _"Floor sixty-five."_

"Are you listening to me, Doctor? I found them." Something wasn't right.

 _"I'm listening to you. You found them."_ He was on automatic, she could tell. His replies were too robotic. She began to circle him, but it was too late, she was too close. Then she was back _there_.

 **01**

He was running again.

They had stopped controlling the people. It was as though they didn't need to talk to him anymore. Didn't need him there.

Why would he need to be there one minute, and then next everything was fine?

 _It wasn't fine._ That was the answer.

"Clara? Clara?" he called out, coming to a halt just past the shop doors. No. No. No. No. He stared at himself, his head, but on his body backwards. Clara lay motionless next to him on the ground. He raced over to her, cradling her head in his lap as he sank to the floor. The blood dripped down her forehead from a nasty gash that must have happened when she fell.

She can't be dead. _Not again._

"Doctor?" That was her, but it couldn't be. He looked up and saw his doppelganger broadcasting Clara's voice. Just like back in her house. "I don't understand. Doctor, help me. I, I don't know where I am. I need you. Doctor, help me, please. I don't know where I am. I don't know where I am! I don't know where I am. Doctor, please. Please help me, I need you. Please help me. I don't know where I am. I don't know where I am."

"You're not dying on me again," the Doctor whispered into her hair before gently setting her down on the floor and taking off his coat for her to use as a pillow. He used the sonic on the spoonhead replica of himself, and Clara began speaking again.

"Doctor, help me. I don't want to die."

He stared at the spoonhead in shock, and then he noticed the gash forming on the virtual Clara's body. If he didn't treat it soon, her condition would only deteriorate. He wasn't going to let her die on him again.

 **01**

Seconds later, that the Doctor was talking to the barista, ordering another coffee. He had a plan, of course; he just needed a coffee if it was going to work.

Back across the bridge was the Doctor's double, riding the motorbike. It was part of his plan of course. The copy approached a man eating a bag of chips outside the Shard. Street lights flashed.

 _"Really, Doctor,"_ they said to the copy. The Doctor tried his hardest not to laugh at the people controlling the wifi's actions. They believed it was still him. _"A motorbike? Hardly seems like you."_

"I rode this in the antigrav Olympics, 2074. I came last," the copy told them.

 _"The building is in lockdown. I'm afraid you're not coming in."_

They seemed so proud of themselves. It was a shame they didn't realise just who he was. Or even where he was.

"Did you even hear the word 'antigrav'?" The copy pressed a big red button on the motorbike. The antigrav was activated, and soon the copy was racing up the side of the Shard.

To save Clara.

 **01**

A loud crash echoed throughout the Shard. The copy had smashed through the window and was now resting in what he presumed to be the head of the company's chair.

A lady dressed in a business suit walked through the doors and stared in shock at his motorbike, abandoned in the middle of the office.

"Do come in," she told him sarcastically.

"Download her," the copy replied, resting his feet on the desk. He presumed it was her office he'd ruined.

"Sorry about the draught."

"Download her back into her body right now."

"I can't." She reminded him a bit of a mouse, all big-eared and nosy, and easily overcome. And the Doctor was no elephant.

"Yes, you can," he nearly shouted.

"She's a fully integrated part of the data cloud, now," she demurred, walking away from the person whom she thought to be the Doctor. "She can't be separated."

"Then download the entire cloud. Everyone you've trapped in there."

"You realise what would happen?"

"Yes; those with bodies to go home to would be free." He stood up loudly, knocking over the chair he was sitting on and kicking a mug off the desk as he swung his feet around.

"A tiny number. Most would simply die." She flinched at the sound of the second smash.

"They'd be released from a living hell," he shouted, walking towards her. He looked at his watch. He was running out of time. "It's the best you can do for them, so give the order."

She moved backwards as he flicked her nose. "And why would I do that?"

"Because I'm going to motivate you, any second now." She was staring at his lips, he could tell. Someone who appeared twice his age. He stood taller, keeping out of her reach, and circled her, much like the waitress had him. Knowing it was her behind the people at the cafe only made it, even more, repulsive.

"You, ridiculous man, why did you even come here? Whatever for?" The wind blew in front of them. He had no time.

"I didn't." He smirked, bouncing slightly out of excitement.

"What?" she said confused.

"I'm still in the café," he told her. The Doctor had pulled the laptop from the table and was sitting on the floor with Clara's head in his lap. "I'm looking after Clara."

"What are you talking about?" Panic had seeped into her voice.

The Doctor wasn't careless; he couldn't leave Clara alone, so he had devised this plan.

"You hack people, but me?" he began, unclipping his helmet. "I'm old-fashioned, I hack technology." The blood was clotting, but slowly, helped by the torn sleeve of the Doctor's shirt. "Here's your motivation."

His copy removed the helmet completely, allowing him to show her the other side of his head. The spoonhead side.

She cowered in front of him, reaching behind her to grab her desk for support. "No, not me! Not me!"

She knew what was coming for her, but the Doctor didn't care. She had hurt Clara, and he would become a Dalek before he let her get away with it.

Through the copy, the Doctor could only see her pleas for help. Her body was in a worse state than Clara's having landed hard on pieces of the chipped mug and broken glass from the windows. He didn't care — all he cared about in that instant was Clara.

He knew the only way to save Clara was to download the whole station, but he also knew they wouldn't do that without some additional help from his side. He was thankful she wasn't smart enough to leave a lock on her iPad; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to change the obedience levels of the workers to the maximum.

No one should ever have that kind of control. His copy took the iPad with him thereafter.

 **01**

 **[Rooftop terrace]**

 **01**

Once Clara had begun breathing again, the Doctor felt it she was safe enough to leave to fetch some towels to clean her wounds as best he could without the proper medical equipment. He knew he'd have to take her back to the Tardis once she was awake.

"Doctor?" Clara had mumbled. He shushed her, calming her down by stroking her hair as he made a phone call. It seemed his old friends had some work to do. She'd mumbled his name four or five times already in her sleep, and a smile lit up his face each time she said it.

After the call, he used his screwdriver to bring the Tardis around them. Clara was still sleeping, but she was a deep sleeper, so the Doctor could carry her to the infirmary.

Clara, his Clara. She needed to be okay. The Tardis knew what she was doing when he left her with the nanogenes.

She also knew what she was doing when she materialised the Tardis outside the Maitland's and instructed the Doctor to carry Clara to her bed. She'll feel the most comfortable in her own bed, the Tardis told him. She's not waking up in your bed and don't tell me you weren't thinking about it.

He grinned, unashamedly carrying Clara around corridors of the Tardis that he knew didn't lead to the console room. He shouldn't have been surprised when he ended up there anyway.

"Don't change the layout! I wasn't doing anything," he shouted, giving in and carrying Clara towards the doors. "And change them back before I return. I've got some studying to do later."

He dropped her off in her bed, grateful the children she governed hadn't returned yet. That would have been a nightmare to explain. He left before they returned.

 **01**

Clara was sorting through the mail when she heard the familiar sound of the brakes on the Tardis outside. She backed out of the kitchen and legged it down the hall to the front doors. A grin was stretched across her face as she slipped on her flats and knocked on the wooden police box doors.

"Come in," she heard him shout from the inside.

"So," she began, stepping inside and leaning against the doors of the Tardis. "He comes back, does he?"

He was sitting on the steps opposite her, glasses on and hunched over a book. "You didn't answer my question."

"What question?" She edged her way inside. Her legs itched to run at him. She felt a hug coming on.

"You don't seem like a nanny," he told her, flipping a page of the book. _Why are you a nanny?_

Clara paused. She'd gone through everything she'd thought he could ask her about, and her job wasn't a possibility she'd considered. "I was going to travel," she gave in, thinking of the best way to answer that wouldn't disturb him. "I came to stay for a week before I left, and during that week…"

"She died, so you're returning the favour, then. You've got a hundred and one places to see, and you haven't been to any of them, have you? That's why you keep the book," he deduced, putting the book on the floor and standing up.

"I keep the book because I'm still going," she told him, jumping to the centre console of the Tardis. It hummed as she stroked it.

He removed his glasses, placing them on the step he had just occupied. "But you don't run out on the people you care about. Wish I was more like that."

Clara stared up at him as he stepped closer to her before using the railings to jump and slide the rest of the way towards her, like a child.

"You know, the thing about a time machine, you can run away all you like and still be home in time for tea, so what do you say, love?" he breathed into her ear, placing his hands over her own on top of the Tardis. He'd said it again. This time, she sort of liked it, though. "Anywhere. All of time and space, right outside those doors."

Clara smirked, flinging her head over her shoulder and looking up at him. Their noses touched before she pulled back. "Does this work?"

"Eh?" He jumped back as she pushed on his chest and made her way around the console.

"Is this actually what you do? Do you just crook your finger and people just jump in your snog box and fly away?"

He followed her, snagging her waist to pull her back to him. Then he registered what she'd said. "It is not a snog box."

"I'll be the judge of that," she laughed, pushing away from him again and crossing her arms.

"Starting when?" He attempted to imitate her, but he ended up just looking awkward and uncrossed his arms, choosing to lean against the console instead. He was more comfortable there.

Her head spun. She needed time to think about this. She tapped her fingers against her arm before relaxing and telling him, "Come back tomorrow. Ask me again."

"Why?" He was confused, he'd give her that. Surely the answer was simple. Yes, and she'd get the world. Or no, and she'd live as she always had, wishing she could see those one hundred and one places.

"Because tomorrow, I might say yes," she answered, that grin lighting up her face again. "Sometime after seven okay for you?"

It was a date, a very specific date. He didn't understand dates. "It's a time machine. Any time's okay."

"See you then." She turned around, placing her hands on the doors.

He was prepared to let her leave. All he had to do was travel to tomorrow after seven. It wouldn't take him a minute. Except — "Clara?" he called out, stopping her from leaving.

"Uh huh?" she responded, still grinning.

"In your book, there was a leaf. Why?"

"That wasn't a leaf." She raised an eyebrow. "That was page one." And then she was gone.

His Clara. She'd be back.

"Right then, Clara Oswald. Time to find out who you are."

The Tardis hummed at him, bathing the console in her light as he started the time rotor. She would be back. And she would be safe this time.

 _Run._

 **01**

 **A/N: I found I rushed the ending a little, may or may not change that later, probably not now that I think about it. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this slightly longer chapter of Whouffle. Not much difference but certainly more in this chapter than the others. Slightly darker too… I probably failed on the darkness, though.**

 **Thanks to my beta kinosternon for working throughout the holidays!**

 **If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.**

 **Read, follow, review. BB**


	7. Asteroids and Queens S7E7

**02**

 **The Rings of Akhaten**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, only my ideas.**

 **Rating: T for Travelling Companions**

 **Chapter summary: Clara and the Doctor's first date is underway, he's taken her to a whole new star system. The Rings of Akhaten. What they don't realise is the strange traditions around the Festival of Years. Clara grows attached to a young girl, who just so happens to be the Queen of Years and when danger falls upon them can Clara risk everything she loved to save those whom she loves?**

 **02**

 **[AUTUMN 1981]**

 **02**

There wasn't a thing about Clara that the Doctor understood. Now he knew who she was, he didn't understand how she was. He'd followed her timeline, her past, and it was a normal past, with normal parents and a normal life.

He'd been doing some reading — catching up on the local culture in a coffee shop — when he saw them. He knew he would, having tracked their timelines through the Tardis, but it was strange to actually see Clara's parents.

He knew they would live, although that didn't make him any less concerned that he'd changed their timelines by arriving. He saw the leaf float into her father's face and immediately thought the worst. But Ellie, Clara's mother, dragged him to safety.

The Doctor knew something important had just happened. A fixed event, their meeting.

He continued to follow them, popping up when he felt something important would happen just to make sure they didn't blow it and not create Clara. He saw them standing in the rain outside Ellie's house, and then he saw the leaf.

A fixed event, keeping that leaf. _That wasn't a leaf, that was page one._ It was something for Clara to hold on to. She wasn't like the Clara in Victorian London — no, this Clara was different. Possibly younger, and definitely a lot more innocent.

He stayed in their past until they'd given birth to Clara, and when the news reached him that a Clara Oswald had been born he was ready to leave. He set the Tardis for 7 o'clock Clara's time and ran to the doors.

What he didn't expect to find was a football heading straight into his face as he rounded the corner he was sure led to Clara's house.

"Oh, my stars! Are you all right?" Clara's mother asked him, running over to help him.

He put his hands in the air as though he was under attack. "Fine. Marvellous. Refulgent. Possibly a bit embarrassed. That's not dangerous, is it?" He laughed. Right, not 2013, 1990. Clara's timeline.

"What's not?" She was laughing at him, not out loud, but still.

"Embarrassment."

"Not usually." Okay, now she was laughing. "Not to my knowledge."

"Good. Hey. Phew." He wiped his brow as Ellie's husband came over to them.

"Mate, I'm so sorry. She wants to be Bryan Robson," Dave apologised, gesturing to his daughter.

"No worries. My fault. No harm done." The Doctor bent down to be eye level with their child. "Hello there…"

"Clara," Ellie filled in when the Doctor looked at her. Of course, the Doctor knew exactly who she was, but he couldn't have them thinking he was some kind of pervert who followed little girls around.

"Ah. Hello there, Clara." He smiled at her. His smile was infectious, and soon he had the whole family smiling as he bid them goodbye.

"Right dear, no more tricks, we've got to pick up Clara and tell her we want to meet her mum!" he called out once he was safely in the Tardis again. The Tardis wasn't quite ready for that to happen, and she jerked, sending him flying into the console. "Where are you taking me now?"

He stepped through the doors. The ground crunched under his feet, still frostbitten from a winter which had barely passed. The daffodils stalks decorated the cemetery, March flowers. He walked slowly between the gravestones. He didn't recognise every name, but he recognised a few.

Most importantly, he recognised hers: Ellie Oswald, beloved wife and mother. It was her, that was for sure. No. No. No. No. She couldn't be dead, she was her mother, and every girl needed her mother. He saw Clara and her father round the corner, and he ran away. He looked back as he hid behind a tree. They were crying, real human crying.

 **02**

 **[TARDIS]**

 **02**

"She's just a girl. How can she be?" He stomped back into the Tardis. The scanner showed her different faces — Victorian Clara, Oswin, and his Clara. "She can't be. She is. She can't be. She's not possible."

He fought within himself. She wasn't possible. He didn't know how Clara had even been allowed on the Tardis when she usually hated impossible things. Yet she had been, somehow. And he had to find her.

 **02**

 **[THE MAITLAND HOUSEHOLD]**

 **02**

Clara had been waiting all day. George had granted her a night off, and that had made Clara's mind up. She couldn't spend her whole life waiting for everything to fall into place whilst she looked after the kids. She had the now, and right now the Doctor was her only option.

She didn't pack much, figuring that she'd be back soon enough. But she did take her book, 101 Places to See. She'd never left without it and she wasn't about to start now, not when she could finally go to the places.

The noise of engines outside caused a grin to light up her face, and then she heard the doorbell and could see him through the glass. Her protector.

She called back into the house that she was off and to not expect her back soon. Then she opened the door. She froze, then ran straight into his arms, and he spun her around.

 **02**

 **[TARDIS]**

 **02**

"So we're moving through actual time?" Clara asked him after he'd sent the Tardis into the vortex. He smiled at her; it was good to have a companion again. She ran from the doors to the console, where he was standing. "So what's it made of, time? I mean, if you can just rotor through it, it's got to be made of stuff, like jam's made of strawberries. So what's it made of?"

"Well, not strawberries," he scoffed, fiddling with his bowtie. "No. No, no, no. That would be unacceptable."

"And we can go anywhere?" She ran around one side of the console while he ran round the other.

"Within reason." He seemed to think for a second before changing his mind. "Well, I say reason."

"So, we could go backwards in time." She stared up at him.

"And space, yes." He stared down at her.

"And forwards in time," she stated, biting her lip.

"And space. Totally." He grinned spinning back around the console and meeting her at the other end again. "So, where do you want to go, eh? What do you want to see?"

They stared at each other whilst he waited for her to respond. She couldn't think of what to say. "I don't know," she said, breaking eye contact with him to look at the console. "You know when someone asks you what's your favourite book and straight away you forget every single book that you've ever read?"

"No. Totally not," he told her. She forgot he was a time travelling alien.

"Well, that's a thing that… happens." She looked back to him again.

"And? Back to the question?"

"Okay. So — So — So…" She pointed at him then ran to the doors. "So I'd like to see. I would like to see. What I would like to see is… something awesome."

She spun around and laughed as he immediately began setting the time machine into motion. He was strange, but she didn't think he even knew how not to be strange. She followed him to the console and watched as the central column lit up and threw them to the floor.

He offered her his hand to pull her up, having anticipated the jerk and braced himself so as not to fall over.

 **02**

They opened the Tardis doors together. Clara stepped out first, eyes closed, with a guiding hand on the small of her back.

"Now, can you feel the light on your eyelids?" He guided her out onto the platform. "That is the light of an alien sun. Forward a couple of steps. Okay. Are you ready?"

He stepped forward and hugged her from behind. It's so she doesn't fall off the platform, he told himself.

"Yes. No. Yes." She grimaced at her uncertainty but felt him smile into the crown of her head. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

"Welcome to the Rings of Akhaten."

The asteroids surrounding a red sun were unlike anything she'd ever seen before.

"It's…" she began, staring in wonder at the sun. His arms tightened around her, and she placed her hands over his.

"It is. It so completely is. But wait, there is more," he told her, getting excited. Clara could practically feel him jumping behind her as her eyes stayed on the sun.

"More what?"

"Wait, wait, wait." He removed one of his arms to check his wristwatch. "In about five, four, three, two…"

He stepped forward with her slightly as an asteroid moved to reveal a glistening pyramid.

"What is it?"

"The Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten. It's a holy site for the Sun Singers of Akhat," he explained, placing his arm back around her.

"The who of what?" she asked quickly.

"Seven worlds, orbiting the same star. All of them sharing a belief that life in the universe originated here, on that planet." He gestured at the sun in front of them.

"All life?"

"In the universe."

"Did it?" she asked, taking her eyes off the sun to smile up at him.

"Well, it's what they believe." He smiled down at her. "It's a nice story."

"Can we see it? Up close?" She detached herself from him and stood with her back to the sun. He held out his hand. Her smile threatened to break into a full-fledged grin as she took it and dragged him back to the Tardis.

 **02**

 **[BAZAAR]**

 **02**

They ran out of the Tardis together, this time, Clara being dragged by the Doctor. She stared with wide eyes at the different species wondering the bazaar. Her grip on his arm tightened when a particularly large alien brushed too close to her, but she giggled whenever her eyes landed on something she hadn't seen before. She let go of his arm and stepped back as he greeted an alien she didn't recognise.

"Where are they from?" she asked him, returning to his side.

"Oh, you know," he answered vaguely. "The local system, mostly."

"And what do I call them?" She grinned at him, tugging on his arm to lead him the way she had just walked.

"Well, let's see. Ah!" As they walked, he pointed out various species to her. She figured it'd just take time for her to get her head round them all. "There go some Pan-Babylonians. A Lugaleracush. Some Lucanians. A Hooloovoo. Ah! Qom VoTivig," he exclaimed upon reaching someone he knew. They performed a complicated handshake, leaving Clara less frightened of the alien in the green mask before they continued on their walk. "That chap's a Terraberserker of the Cadonian Belt. You don't see many of them around anymore. Oh! That's an Ultramancer." He raced off to greet another species. "Do you know? I forget how much I like it here. We should come here more often."

"You've been here before?" Clara asked him. She would hold him to the promise to come here again, she thought

"Yes, yes, yes." He brushed her question off. "I came here a long time ago with my granddaughter."

He dashed off again, leaving Clara calling after him. "Hang on!"

She had wanted to ask him about he could possibly have a granddaughter but dropped the thought when was cornered by an alien. It was much taller than she was and apparently hadn't noticed that it had trapped her as it browsed the market stalls. She had to wait until it left before she could move again. It was frightening to think about the possibility of getting lost here.

She sighed in relief when she spotted her travelling guide standing beside a basket of glowing blue balls.

He inhaled the scent of the basket before offering one to her. "Exotic fruit of some description. Right." Clara picked one up and took a bite. It was bland, very bland. "Non-toxic, non-hallucinogenic. High in free radicals and low in other stuff, I shouldn't wonder."

She shook her head at the fruit and put it back into the basket.

"No?" he asked, dumping the basket on the nearest table to dispose of it.

"So, why is everyone here?" she asked, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. The Doctor produced a napkin from somewhere and dabbed at her mouth for her.

"For the Festival of Offerings." He put his arm around her shoulder, guiding her through the crowds as he had before. "Takes place every thousand years or so when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally, like Pancake Tuesday."

She laughed at him and stepped out from under his arm when she felt a prick in her back. He walked off, and she turned round to come face to face with a creature who was snarling at her, almost like a dog.

"Oh!" Clara jumped back a few paces "Er, Doctor?"

The Doctor rushed up behind her, placing his arm back round her shoulder and barking at the alien.

"What's happening? Why is it angry?"

"This isn't an 'it', it's a 'she'," he scolded, but the smile on his face told her he didn't really mean it. "Dor'een, meet Clara. Clara, meet Dor'een."

"Dor'een?" Clara laughed. It was strange to think these aliens had human-ish names.

"Loose translation," he supplied but seemed confused at something. "She sounds a bit grumpy, but she's a total love actually, aren't you? Yes, you are. No, actually, she's just asking if we fancy renting a moped."

Dor'een barked in conformation. Clara was still confused; she didn't understand how the Doctor could understand her.

"So, how much does it cost?"

"Not money. Something valuable. Sentimental value. A photograph, love letter, something like that," he elaborated. "That's what's used for currency here. Psychometry. Objects psychically imprinted with their history. The more treasured they are; the more value they hold."

"That's horrible."

"Better than using bits of paper."

"Then you pay," she suggested. It wasn't as though she'd brought anything with her she'd be willing to give away.

"With what?"

"You're a thousand years old. You must have something you care about," she smirked at him before turning and walking off to see more of the stalls.

When she turned back around he was gone, and she stopped laughing.

"Doctor? Doctor?" she called out, running back the way they'd come to see if he'd gone back there.

A young girl wearing red rounded the corner just as she did, and they ran into each other.

"Are you okay?" Clara asked, but the girl ran off.

She couldn't dwell on it for long, however, because soon she was confronted by two men wearing the same red as the girl had been.

"Have you seen her?" the taller of the two asked.

"Who?"

"The Queen of Years," he told her.

"Who?" Clara asked again, still confused. The men nodded to each other and left Clara alone. She was sure the girl was who they'd been looking for, but there was no way she could be a queen; she was too young. Still, she had to help. If Clara knew about one thing, it was how to help children.

 **02**

 **[STOREROOM]**

 **02**

"Hello?" Clara called out, into what appeared to be a storeroom.

She was sure the girl had come in here; it was the only place she could have gotten to unless she could jump through walls. As she stepped further inside the room, she heard a bang. She jumped. Breathing in what little air she could, she realised that it must have just been the door closing behind her.

She continued her journey to the depths of the storeroom, and then she heard her — the breathing of a child in panic. Clara turned around quickly and caught sight of the girl from before making her way to the door Clara had just come through.

"Hey," Clara called out to the girl quietly.

The girl froze, a look of terror imprinted on her face — except now she was scared of Clara.

"Are you okay?" Clara continued. "Are you lost?"

She seemed to consider staying for a moment, but then she turned abruptly and dashed away from both Clara and the exit. Clara chased after the girl, only slowing her pace when she no longer heard the footsteps of the child. Around Clara were what looked like normal storage room items — there were bits of air vents, and she was sure she'd seen a stack of Shakespeare somewhere.

The girl jumped out of her hiding spot after Clara had passed her, not counting on her foot catching a table leg and causing it to screech across the floor.

Clara spun around, wide-eyed. They were both breathing heavily from shock.

Clara knew the girl was scared, but she knew how to help scared children, and so she began to laugh. She laughed at them being scared of each other, and the girl began to laugh, too. She was, after all, still a child.

"Are you all right? What are you doing?" Clara asked the girl, concerned.

"Hiding," the girl answered.

"Oh." Clara tried to understand her answer, but she couldn't. "Why?"

"You don't know me?" the girl asked Clara in shock.

"Sorry. Actually not." Clara crossed her arms. She was trying to be calm about the situation, but here was a girl who had no reason to trust Clara, and Clara had no idea what sort of power she had. Clara was terrified of getting something wrong.

"So why did you follow me?" She tilted her head in confusion.

"To help. You looked lost."

"I don't believe you." The girl stepped backwards as Clara stepped forwards. She was still scared.

"I've got no idea who you might be," Clara whispered, looking over her shoulder briefly to check that no one was behind her. "I've never been here before. I've never been anywhere like here before. I just saw a little girl who looked like she needed help." That was partially true though she had her suspicions of who the girl was.

"Really?"

"Really really."

The girl paused for a second. "Can you help me?"

"That's why I'm still here."

"Because I need to hide." She looked over her shoulder worriedly. Seconds later they felt a gust of wind wrap around them.

Clara held her hand out to the girl. "I know the perfect box."

The girl took her hand, and Clara led them through the storeroom, dodging the various items around them. They very nearly ran into what looked like guards — scary ones — before Clara pulled the girl back out onto the bazaar.

 **02**

 **[BAZAAR]**

 **02**

Clara hid the girl behind her as they passed different species of alien on their way back to the Tardis.

"What's this?" the girl asked when they reached the blue box.

"A space-shippy thing. Timey, spacey," Clara explained, checking the area for more guards.

"It's teeny."

"You wait." Clara pulled on the latches on the doors of the Tardis, expecting it to open for her as it had before… except it didn't. "Oh, come on."

"What's wrong?" the girl asked, watching Clara struggle with the doors.

"I don't know," Clara told her. She backed away to examine the Tardis. "I don't think she likes me. Come on, let me in."

She didn't know why, but if the obnoxious humming coming from the machine was any indication, she'd say her guess was correct.

The girl ran around the side of the box.

"Hey. Hey, little girl." Clara peered around the box, but she couldn't see her.

"My name's Merry," the girl told Clara, poking her head around the adjacent corner.

Clara checked behind her before walking towards Merry. She found her sitting on the floor at the back of the Tardis. Clara joined her without much thought.

"So, what's happening? Is someone trying to hurt you?"

"No. I'm just scared."

"Of what?"

"Getting it wrong."

Clara had no idea what Merry was talking about. If a certain Doctor were here, she might understand it better, she thought. "Okay. Can you pretend like I'm totally a space alien and explain?"

"I'm Merry Gejelh."

"Really not local. Sorry."

"The Queen of Years?" Merry said as though she'd never had anyone not know who she was. "They chose me when I was a baby, the day the last Queen of Years died."

"Okay."

"I'm the vessel of our history. I know every chronicle, every poem, every legend, every song," she explained.

Clara didn't know a thing about history, but she did know a lot about children, and if she had been put under that much pressure as a child, she was sure she'd have run away, too. "Every single one?" she asked.

Merry nodded.

"Blimey. I hated history."

"And now I have to sing a song in front of everyone. A special song. I have to sing it to a god." Merry stared at the floor. "And I'm really scared."

Clara smiled, leaning her head against the Tardis. "Everyone's scared when they're little. I used to be terrified of getting lost. Used to have nightmares about it. And then I got lost. Blackpool beach, Bank holiday Monday, about ten billion people. I was about six. My worst nightmare come true."

"What happened?" Merry asked. She was hanging onto Clara's every word.

"The world ended. My heart broke. And then my mum found me." Merry breathed out in relief. "We had fish and chips, and she drove me home and she tucked me up and she told me a story."

Clara closed her eyes as she told Merry her mother's words. It was a good memory to remember — one of the best. Clara was glad she could share it with someone who needed it.

 _— "It doesn't matter where you are, in the jungle or the desert or on the moon. However, lost you may feel, you'll never really be lost. Not really. Because I will always be here, and I will always come and find you. Every single time. Every single time."_

"And you were never scared again?"

Clara struggled for her words. She was supposed to be comforting Merry; she couldn't tell her she was terrified every second she was on this asteroid that she'd die thousands of years and light-years away from home. "Oh, I was scared lots of times, but never of being lost. So, this special song. What are you scared of, exactly?

"Getting it wrong. Making Grandfather angry," Merry told Clara, looking into her eyes.

"And do you think you'll get it wrong? Because I don't. I don't think you'll get it wrong. I think you, Merry Gejelh, will get it very, very right."

Merry smiled at that and reached over to hug Clara. Clara returned the hug before they both stood and made their way to the front of the Tardis. Clara tried the doors again and breathed a sigh of relief when they opened immediately. The Tardis must have known she had needed to comfort Merry back there.

With a smile on her face, Clara led Merry by the hand back to the bazaar. They saw Merry's guards, the red ones, talking to the other stall vendors. Clara gave Merry's hand one last reassuring squeeze to her hand before letting go of her and nudging her towards her guards.

Merry bravely walked over to them and allowed them to put a lei around her neck, only looking back at Clara once. Clara knew that she'd see the girl again, so she smiled at her.

Then her companion appeared, eating one of those blue fruits. He seemed to enjoy them a lot more than she had.

"What have you been doing?" he asked, drawing her in for a hug.

"Exploring," she mumbled into his shoulder. She released him after a while, and he took the opportunity to start leading her through the bazaar again. She shook her head and followed him. "Where are we going now?"

One of these days, she thought, he was going to lead her straight off a cliff. For some reason, that didn't scare her as much as it should have.

 **02**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and followed this fanfiction, I really appreciate it. Special thanks to Kinosternon for taking the time to beta this monster chapter along with the rest of them over the past month! I wanted to go quite dark with this episode so yall will see what I mean in the next couple of chapters. Also, I plan to update every Friday, but as we all have separate lives that target may not always be reached so sorry for that.**

 **Quote from the next chapter:**

 _ **"Something's coming." - Clara**_

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	8. A Queen's Fire

**02**

 **The Ring's of Akhaten — Two —**

 **The Queen's Fire**

 **02**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, only my ideas.**

 **Rating: T for Travelling Companions**

 **Chapter summary: Clara and the Doctor's first date is underway, he's taken her to a whole new star system. The Rings of Akhaten. What they don't realise is the strange traditions around the Festival of Years. Clara grows attached to a young girl, who just so happens to be the Queen of Years and when danger falls upon them can Clara risk everything she loved to save those whom she loves?**

 **02**

 **[AMPHITHEATRE]**

 **02**

Halfway through the bazaar, the Doctor suddenly noticed the lack of people around them. He glanced at his watch, grabbed Clara's hand and dragged her through the streets.

"We're late!" he exclaimed by way of explanation. It didn't really explain much, but Clara trusted him to know where he was going, because she certainly didn't.

They ran into some guards outside gated doors. The guards hurriedly let them pass, and they rushed to the front of a crowd. The Doctor pulled Clara past people already in their seats. "Shush, shush. Sorry. Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me."

"Sorry, sorry," Clara apologised to the person she'd managed to nearly sit upon before the Doctor dragged her to sit next to him. "Are we even supposed to be here?"

The Doctor shushed her, staring straight ahead.

"But are we?" Clara persisted, pulling at his hand to get him attention.

He shushed her again, and she glared at him. "Sorry," he whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead to ease her glare. She stopped glaring and rested her head on his shoulder to see what they were supposed to be watching instead.

Merry was standing in front of the entire crowd on a little platform. She looked back at Clara, who nodded her reassurance.

Merry turned back around and began singing. _"Akhaten —"_

Clara saw the pyramid on the asteroid open up, and a man walks out. She couldn't hear him very well, but she knew he was singing too.

 _"—O god of Akhaten—"_

The Doctor held a leaflet; it must have been a programme of some sort. Clara could read it from her position against his shoulder, but she let him explain it to her anyway. "They're singing to the Mummy in the Temple," he said. "They call it the Old God. Sometimes Grandfather."

The Grandfather Merry was talking about earlier — she hadn't been scared of some strict family member, like the children Clara was used to dealing with. She was scared of another alien, an alien who was powerful enough to be called a god to these people. And Clara was very scared for the little girl.

 _"—O god of Akhaten—"_

"What are they singing?" she whispered lifting her head off his shoulder. As she looked at him she noticed he'd put on some glasses, with old fashion frames, probably to read the programme.

"The Long Song. A lullaby without end to feed the Old God. Keep him asleep. It's been going for millions of years, chorister handing over to chorister, generation after generation after generation."

The people around them seemed to understand the performance better than they did as they lifted their palms out in front of themselves.

"What are they doing?" she asked, giggling as the items in their hands seemed to disappear into gold dust.

"Those are offerings. Gifts of value. Mementoes to feed the Old God," the Doctor explained

 _"—O god of, O god of, O god of Akhaten—"_

 _"—Sleep, my precious king—"_

The crowds began to sing as well. The Doctor tried to join in, but he didn't know the tune. Clara had managed to pick it up and was soon singing along with them. It helped that the programme had the words printed on it.

Then the rumbling started. Clara could see the pyramid shaking; the man on it stopped singing and crouched low in front of it. Merry had stopped singing too. She turned around, panic showing clearly on her face. She was terrified.

 _"—Old God, protect us. Old God, protect us— "_

Clara was staring at Merry when a gold beam shot out from the pyramid towards the platform the girl was standing on. Clara couldn't react fast enough, and Merry was trapped in the golden light and pulled off the platform.

"Okay, what's happening? Is that supposed to happen?" Clara shouted in shock. She'd stood up and was prepared to go after the girl, but she didn't know how.

"Help!" Merry screamed, thrashing with all her might against her captor. It didn't help.

"Is somebody going to do something? Excuse me, is somebody going to help her?"

The Doctor had left her side when she turned back to him. She needed to help Merry, and the Doctor was the only one who could help her do that.

 **02**

 **[BAZAAR]**

 **02**

Clara caught up with the Doctor and pulled on his jacket. "Why are we walking away? We can't just walk away. This is my fault! I talked her into doing this."

"Listen," the Doctor began, turning around and grabbing Clara by the shoulders. "There's one thing you need to know about travelling with me — well, one thing apart from the blue box and the two hearts. We don't walk away."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to where Dor'een still was, and they held a conversation of barks. Clara assumed they were making a deal of sort, possibly for the moped.

He turned to Clara after searching his own pockets. "I need something precious."

"Well, you must have something. All the places you've seen, there must be something," Clara answered.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, but Clara knew he couldn't give that away. "This." He waved it in her face. "And I don't want to give it away because it comes in handy."

"You're a thousand years old, and that's it? Your spanner?"

"Screwdriver," he corrected.

Clara had to make a decision. She looked down at her hand, knowing she had something of value on her. She didn't want to give it away, but she knew Merry needed help more than Clara needed the ring. "It's my mum's."

'Clara, you don't have to do this. I can find something else." The Doctor grabbed her hand to stop her from taking it off.

"No," Clara refused, shaking him off and removing the ring. She had to do this. "I need to do this."

She gave the ring to Dor'een, who then gave them the moped. The Doctor kissed her forehead then ran towards the vehicle.

 **02**

 **[SPACE]**

 **02**

The Doctor climbed onto the front of the moped, leaving Clara to sit behind him like she had on the motorbike yesterday. She clutched his shoulder as she stretched over to see if she could catch a glimpse of the Queen of Years before they reached her.

When she did, Clara desperately reached out her hand, their hands were so close. The beam wouldn't let go of Merry, though, and the second their hands touched, they both pulled back quickly. Merry was taken by the pyramid, and the doors slammed shut behind her.

Clara, upon realising how close they were to the pyramid, reached over and forced the Doctor to pull on the brake. She ignored the burning sensation on her hand as they crashed into the landing platform.

 **02**

 **[OUTSIDE THE PYRAMID]**

 **02**

Both Clara and the Doctor were breathing heavily as they sought out comfort from each other.

"Okay, time to let go," the Doctor told Clara. She didn't let up, but clutched onto him harder, twisting his back into what he thought was her knee.

"I can't."

"Clara, what's on my hand?" the Doctor asked, sitting up straighter and examining his right.

"I don't know," Clara replied, standing and brushing her skirt out with her palms.

The Doctor stood himself and joined her. His left hand was covered in a red liquid, he raised it to his nose and smelt it. "Blood, human blood. Why would my hands be covered in blood?" He saw the same smear of blood on her skirt. "Clara, are you bleeding?"

Clara hadn't noticed it before, but when the Doctor forced her palms to face upward, her left hand was suddenly on fire. It was blistering, burnt and bleeding. Crusty pieces of blood flaked in the Doctor's hands. She could only guess where this had happened. She bit her bottom lip to stifle the pain as he examined her hand with both of his own.

"How are you bleeding? You were fine a minute ago." He scanned her hand with his sonic. Clara winced, but the pain was decreasing. Merry was probably in as much pain as she, if not more.

"I'm fine, Doctor. Can we not concentrate on the girl trapped in a pyramid?" she pleaded with him. He sighed, placing a kiss on her damaged hand before scanning the door with his screwdriver.

"Oh, that's interesting. A frequency modulated acoustic lock. The key changes ten million zillion squillion times a second," he rambled, fiddling with his sonic.

"Can you open it?" Clara asked.

"Technically, no. In reality, also no, but still, let's give it a stab." The Doctor leapt into the door. Clara thought he was trying to break it, but it didn't break, and the Doctor had only managed to hurt his shoulder.

"How can they just stand there and watch?" Clara asked, thinking back to the people watching them across the asteroid belt.

"Because this is sacred ground." The Doctor continued scanning the door with his screwdriver.

"She's a child," Clara protested, grabbing his screwdriver off of him to see if she could understand it. She couldn't; even with the computing stuff in her head, she couldn't understand alien tech all that well.

"And he's a god. Well, he is to them, anyway." He sighed, taking the screwdriver and bashing it against his palm to get it to work again.

She heard a scream from inside the Pyramid. It sounded like Merry; in fact, Clara was pretty sure it could only be Merry who was in danger.

Both of the time travellers raced forward to the door, the Doctor desperately trying to get his screwdriver to work on it and Clara slamming her hands against the stone as If that would help move it.

"Merry! Merry, hold on! We'll be there soon," Clara called out through the stone. The Doctor was again bashing against his sonic. "Doctor?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, hello." He held the sonic to his ear.

"Hello, what?"

"The sonic's locked on to the acoustic tumblers." He pulled Clara away from the door.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning… I get to do this," he told her, sonic-ing the bottom edge of the door.

The door lifted in front of Clara. She stepped forward, but the Doctor put a hand out to stop her. He stepped under it but kept the sonic facing the door.

Merry was standing in front of large glass container that seemed to be holding an alien. The man kneeling in front of her must have been the person singing earlier, but it was what he was singing now that worried Clara.

That thing couldn't have been the God they were talking about earlier, could it? It must have been, but you would think that an alien hot spot would have a better understanding of what was alien and what was God. As far as Clara knew, you couldn't see gods.

"Hello there. I'm the Doctor, and you've met Clara." Clara waved at Merry. "She was supposed to be having a nice day out. Still, it's early yet." The door dropped slightly. "Are you coming, then? Did I mention that the door is immensely heavy?"

"Leave. You'll wake him," Merry almost whispered at them. She was terrified, still absolutely terrified. Clara couldn't help but want to save her.

"Really quite extraordinarily heavy," The Doctor told them. His knees were shaking, and Clara knew that if they didn't act quickly, his knees would buckle and send the door crashing down. The door dropped again and he fell to his knees. "Clara?"

Clara ducked under the door and rushed over to Merry.

 _"—Old God, never wake from slumber—"_ the man on the floor sang.

"Merry, we need to leave," Clara told the girl quietly.

"No. Go away," Merry refused.

"Not without you." Clara held out her hand.

"You said I wouldn't get it wrong, and then I got it wrong. And now this has happened. Look what happened!" Merry shouted, waving her arms about in hysteria.

"You didn't get it wrong." Clara's heart was pounding. There was an alien trapped in a box inside a pyramid, and she really didn't want to get trapped with it.

"How do you know? You don't know anything. You have to go! Go now, or he'll eat us all." How could he possibly eat all of them? Though, if he really was an alien, who knew what he could do?

"Well, he is ugly," Clara commented, running up to the glass box which held the alien. "But you know, to be honest, I don't think he looks big enough."

"Not our meat, our souls."

Clara looked to the Doctor in panic; she didn't know what to do. He was struggling to hold the door, and the only option was to grab Merry and pull her to safety. Merry, however, saw Clara's decision and brought her hands to her temple. A glow of purple shot out and trapped Clara against the glass box. The burning sensation was back, but this time, it was all over her body. She screamed, unable to move her arms.

Merry slowly lowered her hands. Guilt had flickered on her face for only a fraction of a second before determination set in. "He doesn't want you. He wants me. If you don't leave, he'll eat you all up too."

"Yes, and you don't want that, do you?" the Doctor shouted from his position in the doorway. "You want us to walk out of this really quite astonishingly heavy door and never come back."

"Yes," Merry admitted, turning away from Clara.

"I see. Right. Clara's right. Absolutely never going to happen." He faced the door above him, then screamed, not from pain but from frustration. He was going to move. Clara screamed out in pain and he did move. He dropped the sonic and rolled out of the doorway, only just managing to grab the sonic from under he door before it slammed shut, trapping them inside.

"Did you just lock us in?" Clara spat out between groans of pain.

"Yes," the Doctor told them running over to Clara. "And I'm sorry."

"Sorry? why are you sorry?" She moaned, clenching her hands into fists.

"Because – because – because – because I don't have a plan."

That wasn't why he was sorry; there was something he wasn't telling her. Something that would be painfully obvious if she weren't caught in a burning magnet.

"Doctor, why is he still singing?" she spat out, distracting herself from the pain.

 _"—Old God, rest your weary, holy head—"_

"He's trying to sing the Old God back to sleep, but that's not going to happen. He's waking up, mate. He's coming, ready or not. You want to run," the Doctor explained. The man gradually stopped singing. "That's it, then. Song's over."

"The song is over. My name is Chorister Rezh Baphix," the man told them, standing. "And the Long Song ended with me." He disappeared from the pyramid.

"That's it, then. Song's over," the Doctor sighed. He turned around, and a bright light appeared in Clara's face. A roar came from behind Clara. "Ah ha! Look at that."

"You've woken him," Merry exclaimed.

Clara groaned as the alien bashed against the glass behind her. It was causing a fire to spread across her skin, blistering the places nearer the glass and scalding the rest. "What's it doing?" she croaked.

"Oh, you know. Having a nice stretch." The Doctor appeared at the other side of Clara, and she imagined he must have walked around the box. Clara flinched each time the monster bashed the glass. "No, we didn't wake him. And you didn't wake him either. He's waking because it's his time to wake and feed. On you, apparently. On your stories."

"She didn't say stories. She said, souls." Clara grit her teeth.

"Same thing. The soul's made of stories, not atoms. Everything that ever happened to us; people we love, people we lost… people we found again against all the odds. He threatens to wake; they offer him a pure soul. The soul of the Queen of Years."

"Stop it. You're scaring her," Clara said, telling him off despite her pain.

"Good. She should be scared. She's sacrificing herself. She should know what that means. Do you know what it means, Merry?" He had left her side, but she couldn't see where he went, as she'd closed her eyes in pain.

"A god chose me," Merry told him fearfully.

"It's not a god. It'll feed on your soul, but that doesn't make it a god. It is a vampire, and you don't need to give yourself to it. Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story? One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, _so_ many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejelh, and there will never be another. Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice. It is a waste."

"So, if I don't, then everyone else…"

"Will be fine," the Doctor finished for her.

Clara screamed as the monster slammed repeatedly against the glass. She couldn't concentrate on the Doctor; she could barely feel her fingers. _Hold on Clara_ , she thought, _just a few more seconds._ She was only a fraction of a second away from passing out. _Just one more second._ Clara didn't last that second — at least, she thought she didn't until the Doctor was picking her up from the floor and carrying her towards the door.

"Something's coming," Clara mumbled into his shoulder. Her body was numb, yet she knew he'd stopped moving.

"The Vigil," Merry said.

"And what's the Vigil?" the Doctor asked her.

"If the Queen of Years is unwilling to be feasted upon…"

"Yes?"

"It's their job to feed her to Grandfather," Merry finished. She was scared again. She needed help.

Clara managed to open her eyes for the briefest of seconds to see three masked black footmen standing in front of the monster.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" Merry pleaded. Clara shakily reached her charred hand into the Doctor's pocket. She had to protect Merry.

"Don't you dare," she groaned, pulling out the Doctor's screwdriver. "You, stay back. I'm armed."

She pointed it at the Vigil, but it was too late. They'd already acted; Clara and the Doctor were thrown into the wall. Clara's vision went black when her head hit the surface.

 **02**

Merry was shaking against her when she awoke. She was crying. Clara blinked to clear her vision; she could make out the Doctor, and she could only presume he was holding the Vigil off for them. She looked to Merry again.

"You know all the stories," Clara breathed, grabbing Merry's hand to stop her from shaking. She was losing consciousness again. "Find a way out."

"There's a tale," Merry stumbled over her words. "A secret song. The Thief of the Temple and the Nimmer's Door. "

"Sing," Clara said shakily.

Merry sang with everything she had. The rumbling alerted Clara to the opening of another door.

"Go!" The Doctor shouted at them. Clara tried to, she really did, but she just couldn't move her legs. Merry pulled at her hands, dragging her part of the way to the door. They reached a bright light, green like the sonic. Merry couldn't bring her any further.

"Merry, run." Clara pushed the girl off her, forcing Merry to leave her inside. She collapsed. Her legs were shaking. Her fingers were numb.

"Doctor…"

 **02**

 **A/N: Thank you to kinosternon my beta reader for helping to edit this.**

 **Thanks to all those who favourited and followed this fic! Also side note, just started a Tumblr account find me at creativelybroken where I'll keep you updated on the status of my work.**

 **Did anyone mind the darker side to this episode?**

 **Updates every Friday!**

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	9. The Sun's Flame

**02**

 **The Rings of Akhaten — Three —**

 **The Sun's Flame**

 **02**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, only my ideas.**

 **Rating: T for Travelling Companions**

 **Episode summary: Clara and the Doctor's first date is underway, he's taken her to a whole new star system. The Rings of Akhaten. What they don't realise is the strange traditions around the Festival of Years. Clara grows attached to a young girl, who just so happens to be the Queen of Years and when danger falls upon them can Clara risk everything she loved to save those whom she loves?**

 **02**

"—a tactical boo-boo. More of a semantics mix-up, really," Clara heard the Doctor say. Everywhere hurt.

"What boo-boo?" she asked. Her words came out muffled.

Her name was shouted directly her ear. She groaned when a hand ran over her face. It didn't burn, but she'd expected it to, which confused her. Why should it be burning? "I thought the Old God was Grandfather, but it wasn't," the Doctor continued. "It was just Grandfather's alarm clock."

"Lost… Old God?" she groaned.

"Unfortunately, he's still here." He grabbed her hand and kissed her forehead.

"Just do something," Clara mumbled. She felt Merry grab her other hand and flinched. Merry didn't let go, instead, she began singing.

"Against that? I don't know what to do. Do you know? I don't know. Any ideas?" the Doctor rambled. Clara could see his face go through different emotions — he had no idea how to help. Merry stopped her singing and pulled Clara's head into her lap. Clara noticed it didn't hurt anymore.

"But you promised. You promised!" Merry cried, stroking Clara's hair. It was soothing.

The Doctor hesitated. "I did. I did promise." He stood up, running his hands through his hair. He didn't care about the blood that he would surely have to pick out of it in the morning.

"He'll eat us all," Merry wept above Clara. The ground rumbled beneath them. Clara looked up at Merry and lifted her hand to the girl's golden curls. "He'll spread across the system, consuming the Seven Worlds. And when there's no more to eat, he'll embark on a new odyssey among the stars."

"I say leg it," Clara joked. Her voice scratched against her throat, but she didn't mind. Merry laughed, and it was like music.

"Leg it where, exactly?" the Doctor asked.

"Don't know. Lake District?" Clara suggested, propping herself up slightly.

The Doctor smiled at her and stopped his pacing. "Oh, the Lake District's lovely. Let's definitely go there. We can eat scones. They do great scones in 1927."

Merry moved so Clara could rest against the space moped instead of lying down. She could see the sun that was causing their asteroid to shake. "You're going to fight it, aren't you?"

"Regrettably, yes. I think I may be about to do that," the Doctor told them, sitting next to Clara against the moped.

Clara sighed, reaching over to grab his hand. "It's really big."

"I've seen bigger." He laced their fingers together carefully. Clara was thankful he was sitting on her right, not her left; otherwise, she was sure the pain In her hand would have been considerably greater.

"Really?" Clara asked the Time Lord.

Merry began to sing under her breath. Clara felt the same soothing sensation that she had before when Merry had been stroking her hair.

"Are you joking? It's massive!" he exclaimed, rubbing his thumb over her hand.

"I'm staying with you," Clara told him, lifting her head to face him. She wasn't sure why, but she needed to save him, needed to save him from this.

"No, you're not," he said immediately.

"Yes, I am. I can assist." She didn't want him to face it alone. She was sure he could do it. She was sure he would do it. And she was also sure he needed someone to stay by his side.

"No, you can't," he refused, leaning his head back against the moped so as not to look at her.

"What about that stuff you said," she demanded, grabbing his head with her hands and forcing him to look at her. "We don't walk away."

She hadn't thought about what she was doing until the Doctor had her hand in his, her bad hand. And it wasn't hurting. He stared at her, but she didn't have an explanation. There was still dried blood around her fingers, but the blistering had disappeared.

She was on her knees in front of him. He lifted a hand to her face, brushing her hair away from her eyes. His fingers traced her forehead where she'd bashed it against the wall earlier, then her eyelids, then her cheek. She stared at him, confused as to what he was doing.

"Doctor?" she whispered when he traced her lips with his thumb. He leant forward, his hair flopping in front of his eyes as he closed the distance between them.

Clara froze when his lips met hers, but it was brief, too brief. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him until her oxygen ran out, but the rumbling of the sun interrupted them.

"No, love. We don't walk away," he told her, resting his forehead against hers. "But when we're holding on to something precious, we run. We run and run as fast as we can and we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow."

The Doctor let go of her head to pull her hands from his face. Clara stared after him as he stood up.

Merry was already standing by the edge of the asteroid. She'd stopped her singing. Clara wondered why she'd been singing until she grabbed hold of the Doctor's extended hand.

The blisters weren't just gone, they were healed. As she was pulled to her feet, there was a definite ache in her body, but there was no burning pain as there had been before.

"Now, off you pop. Take the moped. I'll walk." He straightened his bow-tie and kissed her hand before letting it drop to her side. He lifted her onto the moped, still being careful of her, and then hoisted Merry up behind her. They waited until he'd walked through a stone archway before taking off. Merry clutched tightly to Clara, who was able to drive them to the amphitheatre.

 **02**

 **[AMPHITHEATRE]**

 **02**

Clara helped Merry off the moped, and together they stood in the centre of the amphitheatre. Clara could see the sun from their position; it was huge in comparison to the pyramid the Doctor was still on.

"Isn't he frightened?" Merry asked Clara, clutching her hand.

"I think he is. I think he's very frightened." Clara nodded, trying desperately to block out the whispers from behind them. She was sure the guards would be pulling her from Merry any second.

"I want to help," Merry said.

"So do I," Clara told her.

Merry took a deep breath before releasing Clara's hand and standing on her pedestal. Then she was singing, _"—Rest now, my warrior — Rest now — "_

 **02**

 **[OUTSIDE THE PYRAMID]**

 **02**

The Doctor didn't know how he could fight the sun; he wasn't sure he could. He just knew he needed to save Clara, the one girl who had managed to sneak back into his heart after so many years of being alone. She was an enigma, and she was real, and she was a fantasy. She was a story, and yet she lived: the story of two completely normal people who created a completely impossible girl.

He smiled when he heard Merry's voice resonating from the amphitheatre. Clara was safe there, provided he could do something over here.

"Okay, then. That's what I'll do," he told the sun. "I'll tell you a story."

 **02**

 **[AMPHITHEATRE]**

 **02**

Clara was sure there wasn't a sound more beautiful to her ears than Merry singing. The crowds around them had begun to sing with Merry, and Clara sang too, hoping that the Doctor could hear their support.

 _" — Live — Wake up — Wake up — And let the cloak of life cling to your bones — "_

Clara stared at the pyramid. She had to do something other than sing. She had to help him. She needed to help him.

 **02**

 **[OUTSIDE THE PYRAMID]**

 **02**

"Can you hear them? All these people who've lived in terror of you and your judgement? All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to you — can you hear them singing?" the Doctor asked the sun. He closed his eyes when he heard Clara's voice drifting just above the others, trying desperately to sing the right tune when she didn't know it. Clara, his impossible girl.

 _"— Wake up — Wake up — "_

"Oh, you like to think you're a god. But you're not a god. You're just a parasite eaten out with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of others. You feed on them. On the memory of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow. So…" He trailed off. He thought he knew how he could save them, and he really hoped it would work.

"So, come on, then. Take mine. Take my memories. But I hope you've got a big appetite." Gold wisps spiralled out from the sun towards the Doctor. "Because I have lived" —they hit him, clawing at his chest, leaving burns wherever they touched— "a long life, and I have seen a few things."

 _" — Wake up — And let the cloak of life cling to your bones — "_

Clara could see the gold reaching out to him as she sang. She knew it would be hurting, and, as Akhaten bubbled, she could only sing.

"I walked away from the last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze," he ranted.

 _Just do something._

He would indeed do something, and he hoped Clara would understand why he had to do it. He faced Akhaten, extending his arms, and gold circled him. "So come on, then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!"

The parasite drew back the golden wisps, sucking them in like a vacuum. The Doctor collapsed as they left, his body fighting to heal on its own without triggering a regeneration. His fingers blistered, and tears streaked down his face as he thought of Clara having already gone through the same pain.

 **02**

 **[AMPHITHEATRE]**

 **02**

 _" — Wake up — Wake up — "_

Merry stopped singing when she saw the gold curls leave the pyramid. Clara stepped forward and grabbed Merry's hand, and the two shared a smile of relief.

Then the rumbling sounded again.

Clara looked up to see that Akhaten had turned dark, the red coiling like a volcano ready to explode instead of a sun ready to shine. It wasn't over yet.

 _And I will always come and find you. Every single time._

Clara thought of her mother, always sticking by her side. She looked at Merry, who appeared just as worried as Clara felt. She had to do something — she couldn't just sing.

 _We don't walk away._

And she wouldn't, she couldn't. She had to save him.

Clara didn't think twice as she hopped on the moped behind them. She had to save him. She could see that the sun had returned — the blackness had disappeared, and it was exploding with light.

 **02**

 **[OUTSIDE THE PYRAMID]**

 **02**

The Doctor was on his knees when she reached him. She ran over and kissed his head.

"Rest now, my warrior," she whispered, letting him fall back to the floor. She stood up straight, taking in the sun. She had to save him. "Still hungry?" She pulled out her book from under her arm. "Well, I brought something for you."

She opened the book to the first page. "This. The most important leaf in human history."

The Doctor stared at her from his position on the ground. It was the leaf that had started it all. Her leaf. The leaf that was Clara.

"The most important leaf in human history," She said, and laughed sadly, holding it out to the sun. The gold twirls were reaching out for Clara. "It's full of stories, full of history. And full of a future that never got lived. Days that should have been that never were. Passed on to me."

She wouldn't. Not for him. This was her life, and she was willing to give it away to save someone she'd only just met. The gold had reached the leaf, singing the edges of it as it tested the waters, making sure all she said was true.

"This leaf isn't just the past, it's a whole future that never happened. There are billions and millions of unlived days for every day we live. An infinity. All the days that never came. And these are all my mum's." Clara was crying as the wisps licked at her fingers, burning her as they had earlier. She let it happen, let all that pain, not just from the sun, hurt her. Just to see him live.

He had to help her. Slowly the Doctor stood, using the wall for support.

"Well, come on then. Eat up," he shouted, standing net to Clara. She took his hand with her free one. "Are you full? I expect so because there's quite a difference, isn't there, between what was and what should have been. There's an awful lot of one, but there's an infinity of the other. "

The leaf disintegrated into gold dust in Clara's hand, and she dropped to the floor. Her mum was gone — really, truly gone. She'd given away her ring and she'd given away her leaf, all for a mad man in a box — and she'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant she could save him.

"And infinity's too much, even for your appetite," the Doctor spat out. He fell next to Clara and held her as they watched the sun collapse in on itself.

 **02**

 **[AMPHITHEATRE]**

 **02**

The Doctor struggled to drive the moped back with his burns; moving hurt, now that the adrenaline had passed. Clara had to help him off of it once they reached the amphitheatre, which was empty apart from the guards. Clara supposed they had stayed at the pyramid a long while before they'd tried to move again.

"Thank you," Merry told them.

They hadn't noticed her stand beside them. Clara smiled at the girl before pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. The Queen of Years looked at the Doctor over Clara's shoulder. It was then she noticed the blisters scattered along his neck and hands. His head wasn't much better, with burns unlike any she'd ever seen.

Clara pulled back from the hug when she felt Merry stiffen. The girl choked back a cry, running her hands over the blisters on Clara's.

"I'm fine, really, Merry. They don't even hurt anymore," Clara reassured her, brushing the girl's hair behind her ear. Merry stepped back and then touched her forehead like she had done in the pyramid.

"Merry don't," the Doctor called out, obviously knowing more about the customs of her species. Clara didn't know what Merry wanted to do.

"I want to," Merry told them, and her smile lit up her face. She began to sing, her words drifting to Clara's ears. They were old words; words Clara couldn't understand.

"What is it? What's she doing?" Clara asked the Doctor.

"She's the Queen of Years. The royal families on Tiaanamaat were born with varying psychic abilities, passed from generation through to generation. Some, a very long time ago, created songs used to heal," the Doctor explained. Wisps of purple reached from Merry mouth as she sang. "And she knows every song."

The purple tendrils coiled around Clara's hand, and she lifted it to find that they were healing her burns. The blisters receded into her skin, the burns faded until there was no trace of them left. The Doctor's hand slipped from her own, and he fell to the floor.

"Merry, you've healed her now, you can stop," he called out, backing away from the tendrils.

She didn't. They reached him, and he was bathed in the purple glow. It pulsed with both his heartbeats and then it was gone.

Clara rushed over to his side and took his face in her hands. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw there were no more blisters dotting his neck. He smiled up at her.

"Why did you want her to stop?" she asked.

"When… When a Tiaanamaatan uses their powers, it drains them. Sucks their energy." Clara hadn't noticed before — Merry had seemed fine. "She'd already used her powers on you twice, and I—I was burnt all over, burns even the Tardis might not have been able to heal. Merry might not have recovered from the energy loss."

"But she did, though, right? She's fine now." As Clara said this, she looked over her shoulder at Merry who was watching them with childlike amusement. Clara gestured for Merry to come over. "See, she's fine. We're fine."

Clara wasn't sure why the Doctor was so reluctant to receive help from Merry. She knew the risks, and she knew what she'd been capable of before she did it, so why didn't the Doctor want her to heal him? Was it like a battle scar? Something to show off? Clara knew he loved attention, but to show off this scar just didn't seem like the Doctor at all.

She had scars — scars she wasn't proud of — scars she'd only ever show to one other person in her whole life. Clara thought maybe keeping the scars was his way of punishing himself. Much like her scars. She wanted to kill the person who had damaged him enough that he thought like that, if that was, in fact, why he wanted the scars.

 **02**

 **[TARDIS]**

 **02**

They travelled in silence in the Tardis as the Doctor took her back to London. She thought of Merry, whom she'd promised to visit; somehow, that had made the Doctor's face light up with a cheesy grin. It made her stay on the Tardis official — it confirmed that she wanted to stay. And boy, did she want to.

She thought of how much she wanted to wipe off the sad smile the Doctor wore as he watched her walking around the Tardis. She longed to reach across the console and kiss him, as he had done outside the pyramid — except longer, and much more passionately.

She was walking past the monitor when she saw it. The Doctor was on the other side of the room flipping switches like a madman, so he didn't notice when her gaze lingered just a second too long on the monitor. It was a photo of her, a few years younger than she was now when she had had a fringe. She was crying in the photo, and she couldn't work out why.

"Home again, home again, jiggity-jig." He ran round to where Clara was, disrupting her train of thought. She smiled and walked towards the doors, glad to be back. She opened the door hesitantly and stared at the Maitland's.

"It looks different," she told him, closing the door quietly. She'd remembered why she was crying in the picture.

"Nope. Same house, same city, same planet. Hey! Same day, actually. Not bad. Hole in one." He seemed proud of himself.

"You were there," Clara began, turning to face him. "At mum's grave. You were watching." The Doctor turned away from the console. "What were you doing there?"

"I don't know… I was just making sure." He fiddled with a control; it was a nervous habit of his.

"Of what?" She glared at him.

He sighed before pushing himself off of the console and walking over to Clara. "You remind me of someone."

"Who?"

"Someone who died."

 _Oh_. Clara hadn't been expecting that. She backed away from him slightly, thinking. She'd thought she could get away with the whole 'I'm not her, I'm just me' speech, but she couldn't be angry with him when he was remembering someone who died, that was just cruel.

"Well, whoever she was, I'm not her, okay?" Clara said softly. She lifted her hand to touch his cheek. "If you want me to travel with you, that's fine. But as me. I'm not a bargain-basement stand-in for someone else. I'm not going to compete with a ghost."

"No," the Doctor agreed, covering her hand with his own. Then, as if he'd just realised something, his other hand dropped into his pocket. He brought their linked hands in between them and placed something in her palm. "They wanted you to have it."

"Who did?" Clara asked, staring at the ring in her hand in shock.

"Everyone." He smiled down at her. She brought the ring to her lips and kissed it. "All the people you saved. You. No one else. Clara."

Clara grinned at him up at him and slipped the ring onto her finger. She hadn't lost everything. Her mum's ring was still with her, and she had the Doctor. The burns from earlier seemed minuscule when she thought about how many people she'd saved. Clara didn't even care that she'd given the leaf to a monster; she was just happy to have this now.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Clara had reached up and pulled the Doctor's head down to meet hers. His arms flailed in shock, and Clara smiled into the kiss. Her arms tugged him closer, and he finished flailing and put his hands around her waist. She could feel every inch of his body pressed into her, and she sighed when she had to pull back for air.

"What was that for?" he asked her, opening his eyes.

"We didn't really get a proper kiss earlier." Clara grinned, letting go of his hand and stepping back. "Thank you, Doctor." Then she was gone. He watched her step out the Tardis doors and back into her normal life.

He didn't do that — he wasn't the sort of person to kiss his companions. Yet she had kissed him again. Once in Victorian London, and again here. Granted, he'd kissed her on the asteroid, but could he let himself grow attached to her? It had been a while since he'd last had a companion at all, but he was sure it had never worked like this.

She was impossible, but she was his impossible girl — and maybe he'd just have to cross those bridges when he came to them because he couldn't hold back now.

 **02**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favourited/followed this fic. Special thanks to those who pm-ed me, I love talking to you guys!**

 **I'm so glad the story's turned out the way it did and thank you to my beta kinosternon for being absolutely amazing and fast with editing.**

 **Dark and dangerous, that's the impossible duo, right?**

 **Anyway, see you on the next Friday!**

 **— BB**


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